Short answers, pulled from the story.
VML agency was formed on the 17th of October 2023 when WPP Group merged VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson into a single entity. This strategic consolidation created the second largest agency within the WPP Group with more than 30,000 employees across 64 markets.
John Valentine, Scott McCormick, and Craig Ligibel founded the original VML agency in 1992 in Kansas City, Missouri. The three advertising leaders chose the initials of their names to form the company's identity and anchored the agency in Kansas City before expanding globally.
Lester Wunderman first used the term direct marketing in 1961 to describe a new way of communicating directly with consumers. He opened Wunderman, Ricotta & Klein in 1958 and later merged with J. Walter Thompson to form Wunderman Thompson in 2018.
The headquarters of VML agency is distributed across three major cities: Kansas City, New York, and London. This unique distribution reflects a deliberate effort to balance its American roots with its global ambitions following the 2023 merger.
VML launched the 2024 Super Bowl campaign Mayo Cat to raise awareness of food waste. The campaign featured an anthropomorphic cat named Mayo Cat and stars like Kate McKinnon and Pete Davidson to encourage viewers to use Hellmann's Mayonnaise to create new meals from leftovers.
Jon Cook serves as CEO and Mel Edwards serves as President of VML agency following the 2023 merger. Jon Cook was previously Global CEO at VMLY&R and Mel Edwards was previously Global CEO at Wunderman Thompson.